Six months after explosion, Pennsylvania mill town sees hope but a history of disappointment Six months ago, an explosion at the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works killed two people. It also heightened the stakes in the life of a western Pennsylvania mill town even as a new mayor tries to raise hopes.

Pittsburgh’s Public Source and the Associated Press spent the past six months reporting from Clairton, listening to a community looking to the future. Here’s what residents said about the coke works, its new owner and their role in the city.

Munhall, Stowe police walk back ICE partnerships after quietly inking agreements Public Source asked local officials about signed partnership agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two municipalities later canceled the agreements.

Three local police departments quietly signed agreements with ICE in November.

When i started making calls, senior officials said they were unaware.

Then, two departments quickly terminated their partnerships.

Read more @publicsource.org:
www.publicsource.org/munhall-stow...

Three Allegheny County police departments appear to have orchestrated “task force” agreements with ICE without the knowledge of municipal leadership. After @quinnglabicki.bsky.social asked questions, two municipalities walked those agreements back. buff.ly/8GoPSZS

Pulitzer Center - Photoville - PublicSource.org - Visualising the Invisible: Building Trust in Underreported Communities - Photoville Opening Weekend - Saturday, June 7, 2025 - St. Ann's Warehouse - Quinn Glabicki - Stephanie Strasburg

At opening weekend of #Photoville, hear from @publicsource.org’s @quinnglabicki.bsky.social and @stephstrasburg.bsky.social in a panel on building trust with underreported communities.

Learn more about creatively visualizing unseen harms and capturing under told stories.
👉 bit.ly/4mGpqkD

Hollowed Out - Photoville Exhibit - Brooklyn Bridge Park - June 7-22 2025 - Photoville - Presented by Pulitzer Center - Featuring photography by Quinn Glabicki

Our 2025 Photoville exhibit ‘Hollowed Out’ captures the gas extraction industry’s hidden toll on families.

Grantee @quinnglabicki.bsky.social chronicles locals who abandoned their homes due to pollution and water contamination in our exhibit at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York.

👉 bit.ly/4dyXGdI

EQT: Climate change, politics and Appalachia CEO Toby Rice wants to lead “the largest green initiative on the planet.” Explore the politics, dollars and communities in the natural gas producer’s fracking path.

In 2024 @publicsource.org reporter @quinnglabicki.bsky.social drilled into EQT's operations in rural PA and WV, explored the company's climate claims and profiled its CEO in "EQT's Gas Play" www.publicsource.org/eqt-gas-play/

Scrutiny of EQT fracking likely to shift in 2025 EQT has complaints against it in West Virginia. It has been sued in Pennsylvania. Now, the natural gas giant is meeting a fracking-friendly Washington.

Pittsburgh-based fracking giant EQT approaches 2025 with a sunny political forecast. Will an ongoing EPA investigation drift away? Will a class-action lawsuit cloud the skies? @quinnglabicki.bsky.social scans the horizon www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-n...

Pittsburgh’s older Black men hit hardest by overdose crisis Large U.S. counties' morality data, including Allegheny County, Pa., shows Black men born from 1951-1970 are most likely to die by overdose.

1/ Older Black men in American cities are dying of overdose more than any other demographic group. Jamie Wiggan and I investigated the forces behind these deaths in Pittsburgh, including fear of calling 911 — a consequence of racist drug war policies. 🧵 www.publicsource.org/allegheny-co...

Allegheny County Council punts vote on permit fee increase Plans to hike permitting fees for industrial polluters have been put on hold while council support wavers.

Two weeks after voting to increase taxes on all property owners, Allegheny County Council got cold feet on a proposed increase in fees on polluters, @quinnglabicki.bsky.social reports. U.S. Steel is pleased. www.publicsource.org/health-depar...

EQT: Climate change, politics and Appalachia CEO Toby Rice wants to lead “the largest green initiative on the planet.” Explore the politics, dollars and communities in the natural gas producer’s fracking path.

This is the latest in our series EQT’s Gas Play. The project is supported by @pulitzercenter. Many thanks to the great editors and fact checkers and colleagues who made this possible.

www.publicsource.org/eqt-gas-play/

For people in places like Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, unleashed LNG exports could upset the equation that has long included airborne emissions and water contamination on one side, and cheap, homegrown energy on the other.

If the GOP embrace of Trump’s campaign trail mantra: “Drill, baby drill!” translates into a profitable win for Rice, it might not be one for American consumers.

There is mounting concern that Rice’s vision of “unleashed” LNG would mean for American energy bills.

“What he’s typically not going to be emphasizing — unless he’s talking just to his investors — is [that] by promoting LNG exports and gas expansion, ‘I am going to get filthy, stinking rich,’” Slocum said.

Rice has cast LNG as a global savior: a geopolitical wedge countering Putin’s aggression and the influence of “petro-dictators” on the world stage, lifting people who “use wood and dung as a primary source of energy” from energy poverty, and addressing climate change by replacing coal abroad.

Since 2021, EQT has spent more than $2.6 million lobbying Congress and federal government branches to support LNG interests, lobbying reports show.

He’s invested his own cash to build influence in D.C.

Last year through August, Rice personally donated nearly $238,000 to federal campaigns or political action committees, including $56,200 in support of Dave McCormick in the PA senate.

“He is evangelical about natural gas,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen, a D.C. corporate accountability group.

“He ascribes almost supernatural powers to natural gas. I’m waiting for him to say that it can ward off COVID and evil spirits.”

EQT’s Toby Rice poised for profits and pipelines after GOP wins With fracking supporters Donald Trump and Dave McCormick headed for Washington, Rice’s Pittsburgh natural gas corporation is positioned to profit.

Toby Rice backed winners in the Senate. He hobnobbed with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

He has become one of the most influential fossil fuel executives in America.

Now, his “Shalennial” vision to vastly expand American gas exports is ever closer to reality.

www.publicsource.org/eqt-toby-ric...